To Stop a Changing River
by Delphidelion
Summary: In an effort to stop the temporal cold war from effecting certain moments in space time, Ranma is sent to the future for a ride he'll never forget!
1. Chapter 1

Ranma and the Star Trek series are owned by their respective owners and the characters are used without permission. This work is purely a labor of love and not intended for profit of any time.

"_What's happening?" he asked aloud as the shaking got worse._

"_You're dying, and there's nothing you can do about it."_

**To Stop a Changing River**

Chapter – 1

Things to come

Relaxing into the large first class seat of the commercial jet, a battered and exhausted black haired man with a pigtail, dressed in a tank top and gym shorts, let off a long sigh. It had been a very tiring couple of weeks. He let his mind wander back to the recent events as the passenger plane started down the runway.

It had all started with a phone call from an Okinawan shrine in need of help tackling the case of a missing fox spirit that protected the local area. The kitsune had been known to go absent from time to time, but never during the main growing seasons, and the farms had started to fail. Petty crime started to rise in the area as well. When news had started to spread through the priest and martial arts circles, the man's mother had thought it was the perfect opportunity to bring some much needed recognition to the dojo, which he and his fiancee had reopened only months prior.

_"Ranma, you really should go look into this." His mother started in after she finished reading the letter addressed to the dojo. "You have the most experience in dealing with spirits from anyone else I know." Ranma shifted his attention back to his fiancee as she broke into the conversation._

_ "She's right you know. It's not like we're struggling or anything, but the name recognition would do wonders for the security of our school. It's not like I can't handle things around here while you're gone." She added with a soft smile._

_ "I suppose you're right." He sighed, wondering about how long this would take. "I really hope it doesn't take too long, the Nerima ward of Tokyo never stays silent for too long."_

Well, he smiled to himself, someone had answered his prayers. As far as he knew, things had stayed fairly calm while he had been gone. Granted everyone had started to calm down as they had started up at, and graduated from, the local university. There was still the occasional scuffle, though. The plane made its final bank as it steadied out towards its main flight path back to home. He let his thoughts drift back to the recent events.

When he had first reached the island things had been perplexing. Not that he had much to go on, spirits usually looked for you, not the other way around. He lucked out when a minor oni had come to harass the neighboring town. After besting it at arm wrestling, best three of five, things had really started to take off. He had learned that the kitsune's boyfriend, one of the local racoons spirits, had been gone for a while and she had gone to look for him. He was pointed in the direction of a hidden island nearby that he'd need a special stone to enter.

_"Be careful, little bro, last time I saw Genki he was very nervous. Watch your back" Green Oni waved to him, smiling, as he left the village with a new goal in mind. The Gate Stone. Last time it had been seen was in the main land of Japan._

Ranma looked out the window, noticing the ocean beneath them. Its beauty clashed with his natural feelings towards that particular body of water, which had kick started the more mystical aspects of his life. The curse never really bothered him anymore, he'd had it for nearly seven years now. He guessed that he normally spent at least thirty to forty percent of his time each year as a girl now. Changing back to a man seemed less and less urgent each year as it just became part of the normalcy that was his life.

"Beverage, sir?" He was broken from his thoughts as one of the flight attendants grabbed his attention.

"Do you have any hot tea?" He may no longer care about being a man one hundred percent of the time, but he knew when a good time to do so was. Boarding a plane as a man and trying to leave as a woman probably wouldn't end well.

"Of course." The cheerful girl reached into her cart for a cup before pouring and handing Ranma his tea. As she left he reflected onto his last adventure some more to pass the time while enjoying the relaxing aroma and flavor of the hot straight tea.

The Gate Stone, of course, had not been an easy find. It had required him to go back to mainland Japan. He ended up finding it at a collector's home in Kobe. After accepting an emergency engagement agreement, allowing for either family to use in the case of procuring an heir, he had been on his was back to the shrine to start locating the hidden island. He really hoped that Akane didn't hold that engagement deal against him, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

He smiled as the main island of Japan came into view. It was always comforting to see the land you called home. He'd been all over the world in his relatively short life, he had even lived in America for a brief stint as a foreign exchange student. Still, seeing the main island of Japan still made him happy in a way he couldn't describe.

The Island had been easy enough to find, granted he had a really lucky break in that Toma's island had been nearby at the time. The prince had offered the location of the island happily, though with a warning that most that ventured there usually did not come back. Well, it never was like him to quit halfway through anything, and he had not intended to start at that time. He did, however wish someone had told him exactly what he was getting into.

At the center of the island, which itself was not too big, was an oasis of sorts. As he was instructed he tossed the stone into the center and had been quite surprised to watch the water split into a staircase. He started down the staircase, not sure of what to expect.

Some mild turbulence broke him out of his musings as the plane entered a small weather system that had come north quicker than expected. Seeing the clouds out of the window made him chuckle. The curse at work, he knew, but he was protected from the sudden shower in a pressurized cabin that the water couldn't get through. He made a face out the window aimed at the clouds before sinking back into his seat.

It had taken hours of walking down the staircase, taking him lower and lower into the earth. What he found at the bottom he would have never expected. He had wound up on a massive cliff face easily the height of the Tokyo Tower. It stretched around in a circle in what he guessed was easily a twenty-five kilometer radius. The only reason he'd seen the other side was a massive jewel floating at the top of the gargantuan cave, giving off an otherworldly light. There had been a city, not unlike Tokyo itself, that spanned the bottom of the cave.

He broke off from his musings as nature started to call. Looking out the window he noted that the weather system had passed already. Leaving his seat he was thankful that the seat next to him had been open. The flight was pretty empty, leaving him plenty of room to move about if he had wished. He took care of business and made his way back to his seat. Feeling a little peckish he ordered a snack. The best thing that had come from his adventure had been the wealth that he accumulated. He couldn't help it if that little bit of his dad in him appreciated having become filthy rich. First class really was the only way to travel. He smirked, remembering the city of spirits.

He had no idea what the place was at the time, only that it resembled a modern city. The only problem to him was that it was hours underground. He had to climb down the sheer cliff face, which was difficult even for him. When he had entered the outskirts of the city, things didn't seem that strange. That massive jewel had mimicked a clear sky. It was the inhabitants of the city that had set his internal alarms buzzing. The entire population had been oni, spirits and monsters!

_"Hey, isn't that a human?" A kappa spirit asked, pointing at Ranma with no reservation._

_ "Nah, it couldn't be." The ghost next to him wheezed out. "There hasn't been a living human here in almost twenty centuries."_

_ "I don't know, man." This time it was a large blue oni that started talking. "That sure smells like a human. My memory's a bit fuzzy, but I'm almost certain._

Ranma smiled remembering his surprise at the situation. Every time in his life that he'd encountered just one spirit it had meant trouble for his life. He had stumbled into a whole metropolis full of them. It was like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. Poking at his clothing as he remembered the first couple of days where his belongings we destroyed in a fight with a fire spirit and he had a run in with the crime lords repeatedly. It hadn't taken him long to become and enemy to the law either, considering no other human had entered the place since it had been sealed two thousand years prior.

_Ranma ducked down an alley, R'hal's thugs now behind him, and the law in front. Captain Jun must have been laying in wait._

_ "Get that human! He'll go for a good price any day of the week!" One of the thugs bellowed out._

_ "Get that human! He'll pay for the crime of being a human!" He heard Jun's voice over a loudspeaker. With no other option, and not really wanting to get 'got' Ranma opted for up. Bouncing from wall to wall as fast as he could he made for his old ally, the rooftops! None of the spirits were able to follow. The Heart Gem made the city as real to spirits as any physical object is to humans. It was used to make sure that the human world couldn't easily find and destroy the last of the spirit cities because of the criminals that would surely try to go to the surface._

He looked out the window of the plane again, this time at the mountains below. Japan was seventy percent mountains, so it was no surprise that there were so many that it looked a little like a jagged design passing below. It was pretty nice looking. City wasn't all bad though. wasn't all bad, though.

_"Who are you!?" The purple haired girl shouted as she curled up in her blankets for protection. "Explain now before I call the guards!"_

_ "Look, I'm sorry for crashing through your sky light," Ranma started, picking himself off the stone floor, "I was expecting a park through the tree tops, not a manor." He bowed as apologetically as he could, the last thing he needed was the thugs and the law finding him again._

_ "You're different," She observed, squinting at him. "What are you?"_

He recalled her face, the cute pout she had when she learned that he was human. At least he wouldn't have to worry about the promise he had made to her for a nice long time, if he had anything to say about it. Hopefully he could just avoid telling Akane about that one as well.

_ "I might help you out on one condition," Fu said with a small smirk._

_ "Yeah? And what's that?" Ranma asked, a small sinking feeling rising up in his stomach._

_ "When you die, I'll barter with death himself, and have you brought here to be my husband." She said with a small blush while poking her fingers together. "You are, after all, the first man from outside these walls to see me without my robes on..." Ranma's face lit up like a Christmas tree._

He did owe her, though, she had really come through. With the help of her and her family resources, he had been able to find the kitsune. It turned out that her boyfriend had gotten mixed up with the criminals and had been working for them, kidnapping various spirits to sell to others, spirit and human, as slaves. Unlucky for her, she had been captured as well, after all it wasn't everyday that such a powerful and beautiful spirit naively wandered into the city of spirit's underworld.

Before he could continue his thoughts the gave a mighty lurch. The cabin began to bounce around in a way that made him very nervous. Looking out the window out of pure reflex he noted no clouds or and weather patterns as far as the eye could see. Just mountains.

"What's happening?" he asked aloud as the shaking got worse.

"You're dying, and there's nothing you can do about it."

The last thing Ranma expected was an answer so clear and calm. Looking to his side he noticed a man like none he'd ever seen before, not to mention seen since the flight had started. The man was wearing black and red robes that seemed otherworldly in their own right, especially how the headpiece melted into the robes.

"What's going on? Did R'hal send you?" Ranma's body tensed as he prepared to do what he could to save as many people as he could. Two thoughts shot through his mind; '_I'm sorry, Akane_._' _and '_Well, Fu, looks like you'll be seeing me a lot sooner than I thought_.' "Did you do this to the plane?" Raising his arm to the air, no longer focused on him, the man simply snapped his fingers.

"No, sadly, I didn't cause the plane to crash, as fascinating as it will be to watch." the man lamented, seemingly oblivious to the danger of the situation. "No, you were always suppose to die here at this time." Time around them seemed to start slowing down, the cacophony of the cab lightening eerily as the man looked back to him. "Not done in by the antics of your fiancees gone too far, nor one of your rivals getting lucky. Not even in a heroic battle, protecting the ones you love. Your fate has always been one of the faceless aboard flight number twenty-six bound for Narita, victim of engine failure." Time started to noticeably churn to a halt, making the hairs on Ramna's neck stand on end. There was nothing natural about this situation, or this man. "I, however, have a use for you beyond being part of the statistical data of this time. You see, there are forces at play, threatening to take away my father's fun. Not on purpose, mind you. Normally I would find it endlessly amusing to see my father thwarted by lesser beings, but if my father looses his favorite plaything, well, I cease to exist." The man's face turned into a wry grin, "And I happen to enjoy existing as much as the next inferior being."

"What do you mean, 'cease to exist?'"

"You're about as quick as Aunt Kathy at the best of times." The man murmured to himself. "Look, let me make this simple for you. I'm technically from your future, as far as your primitive perception of space and time is concerned. I can be anywhere and do anything I'd like. However, if time is thrown out of whack, well there's a chance that I can't fix it, as loathe as I am to admit that. Someone has managed to bend the meandering flow of time and the river is starting to shift away from the point of which I'm most fond, my origin."

"So why tell me any of this if I'm just going to die anyway?" Ranma asked, his voice cutting clear through the silence of the frozen time around him. His answer was a bark of laughter, the man's face twisting into a superior grin.

"Whoever has achieved this has clearly not understood what it means to annoy me to the point of retaliation. I'll explain it in a way that even your half evolved gray matter can grasp. You see, when someone places some rocks to change the flow of a river, you place a massive boulder in the way to trump the smaller rocks. It balances everything out in the end."

Ranma wasn't quite getting what the man meant. "Couldn't you just remove the smaller rocks?"

"Where's the fun in that?" the man's expression was one of bemusement on that point. "I'm giving you a chance to continue living. Not a choice, but a chance. You mess up and I'm gone. If I'm gone, then you die here anyway. Don't try to figure it out, your brain is obviously not a muscle you exercise too much." The man started to stand from his seat, grabbing and pulling Ranma up with him in a move that the martial artist hadn't noticed or felt. "You have one goal, and that is to do what you do best, survive. If I'm right, and I always am, placing the boulder that is you in the path of the bend should resolve everything and make it all but impossible to change this particular event again, well without my power anyway."

Time started to pick back up and the screams of the passengers and the deafening roar of the cab quaking at the mercy of turbulence started to overload Ramna's hearing once again. He started to get worried. He had expected this strange man to do something, take him somewhere different. Instead the man started laughing while holding him in place.

"This is going to be so much fun!" The man called out, as the world shattering noise that was the nose of the plane meeting the side of the mountains, which were before just an afterthought while looking out the window, erupted into darkness.

AN: Thank you, everyone, for taking the time to read my second piece. I have been having trouble moving forward in RVG, not that I don't know where I want to go with it. Quite the opposite. It's like I'm Les Stroud (sp?) trying to get to the town from the middle of the forest. I know the direction, just not the correct path yet. Please leave a review or two as the story progresses. I will be using some of the back story introduced here further down the road to help give the story a decidedly Ranma twist later on, so you may see more from the characters introduced here. I intend to start up from early season 1 of Enterprise and move forward from there all the way to the end. It won't be easy, but I hope the ride will be worth it!


	2. Chapter 2

KingKong – Thanks for the support. I feel like Enterprise got a pretty bad rap when it hit the third season, and as such is one of the more underestimated series as far as lore and overall enjoyment goes. I can see how it was hard to follow without watching it consistently, but with shows like Game of Thrones, Walking Dead and Breaking Bad, you'd think that if it were being produced today more people would have enjoyed the major arcs that it held over a single season. I found it quite compelling myself.

Tuatara – Sorry the prolog wasn't your cup of tea. I was going for one of the captain log monolog style scenes to help set up the why, as I myself don't enjoy stories that don't allow you to know the back story but force you to read as though you do. It's generally jarring and allows the author to make inserts that would otherwise not make sense without explanation. Just my thoughts. Hopefully this next chapter will catch your attention. Also, don't you worry about the twist, let me worry about blank.

**To Stop a Changing River**

Chapter – 2

Really Unexpected

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"Take a nap, Trip. That's an order."

Jonathan Archer leaned back into his couch, intent on getting some reading done. His friend and second in command, Charles Tucker III (or Trip as he preferred), was making it a little difficult to make any head way. After all, as tough as Trip was, he was also stubborn. Hopefully he'd take the Xyrllian captain's advice and try to actually get some rest. After all, they appeared to have plenty of experience in dealing with this kind of situation where Humans hadn't. He'd just have to put faith in this newly met species.

He'd made it about another sentence in when something completely distracted him. He noticed the sickly scent of singed flesh waft through the air, but it didn't fully register until he'd also heard a light groan just feet away from where he was. Lowering his book, half out of frustration, but mainly out of alarm, he looked to his side. When he noticed where the scent and sound came from he jumped to his feet and quickly took stock of the situation.

Curled up on the floor before him was a very injured person that looked lucky to be alive. His flesh was burned and bruised badly and he was bleeding steadily from various wounds. What little clothing he had left on his body was charred almost beyond recognition. His mind instantly started swimming in questions as well as fear and alarm. Where did this man come from? How did he get on the ship? Why was he so injured?

His compassion won out in the split second conflict that battled in his mind, allowing him to make the decision he knew was right. Pressing the comm button nearby as he knelt to the figure. His voice rang out in a clear command.

"Archer to Phlox." He called out to his medical expert, the Denobulan who had happened to become the ship's physician.

"Yes, captain?" The usually cheery voice inquired.

"There appears to be a medical emergency in my quarters. Third degree burns, severe lesions and blunt force trauma." There was a short pause before he got a response.

"Uh, appears, sir?" came confused response. Usually you either did or didn't have a medical emergency, not something that appeared as one.

"Just come quickly." He pressed the button again, "bridge."

"Go ahead captain." The monotone of his science officer called through the system.

"I need you to bring Malcolm to my quarters right away."

"Is everything alright, captain?" His armory officer's concern was quite clear as he interrupted the conversation.

"Is don't know, just hurry."

Now that he had that out of the way, he could concentrate on helping whoever this man was. Being as gentle as he could he rolled the figure onto his back from the position he was in. Getting a good look at the now obviously young man, he noticed a few things. First, he was definitely human, as far as he could tell. Second was that he was Asian, most likely Japanese. He had similar features to Hoshi Sato, his communications officer. It didn't take long before Phlox came through the door, followed by his science and armory officers. Looking up he addressed his doctor first.

"Phlox, I need you to help me get this man to medical quickly." He turned to his only other alien crew member, a seemingly slip of a woman from the planet Vulcan, "T'Pol, I want you and Malcolm to run some scans here. Figure out where this man came from, and how he got here. Meet me in medical when you're finished here."

"Yes, sir," came the curt response from the Vulcan woman as she pulled out her small hand computer. His armory officer gave a quick nod before starting to examine the room as well.

"He appears to be mostly stable, captain," Phlox stated as he sat the injured man up. "If you don't mind, we should have no problems carrying him to sick bay. The doctor gave his almost ever present smile, setting Archer at a little more ease than he was moments before.

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"It's amazing, captain," Phlox announced as data poured in from the imaging chamber they had placed the man is. The Denobulan soaked in as much as he could before the captain broke him from his thoughts.

"Doctor?"

"Look here, his healthy cells are producing unheard of amounts of energy," The doctor said, pointing to the screen. "The excess energy is being transferred to the damaged cells and reinforcing his body's natural regeneration. I've never seen a human display such characteristics before."

"Are you sure he's human?" Archer asked, looking from the screen back to Phlox.

"Oh yes, most definitely. Well, at least within ninety-nine percent certainty."

"I don't understand, shouldn't you be one hundred percent certain?" The captain gestured to the screen. "All of the data is right there."

" It's not the data, per say," Phlox responded, "it's the fact that there's an oddity of sorts." He tapped the a button ext to the screen, bringing up the man's DNA sequence. At Archer's inquiring look he continued, pointing to the screen. "It's probably just a technical glitch, but it appears to be rather consistent. The Y chromosome seems to occasionally give off a peculiar energy signature that the imaging chamber can't quite identify."

Before the Doctor could continue into his amazement at the data the door to sick bay opened up, revealing both T'Pol and Malcolm.

"What did you find?" Archer asked, turning to his officers.

"Well, sir, we found something and we found, well, nothing." Malcolm said, seemingly in thought himself.

"I don't suppose you'd like to clarify."

T'Pol took over from that point. "What the lieutenant is trying to say is that we found out where the man most likely came from, but absolutely no clues as to how he may have gotten here."

"Most likely came from? Let me guess," Archer said said a little frustrated at the situation, "there is a little anomaly."

"Well, yes, sir." Malcolm stated, focusing on the current situation rather than security compromises that may have just happened. "When we were running the scans, we found that some of the charred material left behind definitely came from Earth, but there was something off."

"The quantum date of the material comes from the late twentieth century." T'Pol finished in her normal tone, apparently unfazed by the situation. "It could be a glitch, but I suspect that it may also be nothing more than the man was wearing profoundly old clothing before whatever process brought him here was active. It remains a point, however, that we have no leads on **how** he got here. He just appeared, as far as our scans can tell."

Archer looked to Phlox before he made the decision on what course of action to take. "You said that he was recovering at fast a pace?"

"Indeed." Phlox smiled. "Why, I wouldn't be surprised if he woke up before the day was through, assuming of course he doesn't slip into a coma first." He switched the data on the screen to show detailed scans of the man's head. "Whatever means he used to get here seems to have banged him up pretty good." Archer gave him a long look.

"Well," Archer started, turning back to the chamber's screens "I'm sure he'll have some interesting answers for all of our questions once he wakes up." Archer looked to Phlox. "Keep me posted, I want to know when he comes around."

"Of course, captain."

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Ranma woke slowly, the last thing he remembered was the plain crashing before that strange man had brought him to, well, wherever he was. He knew he was at some point in the future. When he tried to sit up his body protested. That strange man must have taken his sweet time bringing him here, it felt like he had participated in the actual crash. Well, it seemed the phoenix pill was still kicking if he could survive burning jet fuel. He heard the sound of curtains being slid open. He surmised that he must be in a hospital from the smell as well as the familiar sound coupled with the position he woke in. He tried to crack his eyes open to get a better look at his surroundings. The light was too blinding for him to do anything but squint.

"Ah, I see you're finally awake." _Crap, English._ He thought. It wasn't that he couldn't understand what was said, he just hated the lag his inexperienced level of English forced in communication. At any rate, whoever had said that must be his doctor judging by the inflection. Not quite trusting his voice yet, he propped himself up on his elbows as he nodded. He could barely make out anything but the silhouette of the man past his squint.

"Good," The kindly voice continued. The figure leaned over and touched something. "Captain, I thought you'd like to know that our guest has regained consciousness."

"I'm on my way," came a reply over a speaker.

"You'll be happy to know that you've recovered quite well." The man continued. "If I hadn't known any better, I'd have thought you weren't human." The man chuckled. "I've never met a human, let alone another species, that recovers as fast as you have, so I must assume that humans are more capable than they realize.

"_Not Human?_" Ranma asked reflexively in his native Japanese.

"Excuse me?" Phlox asked, a little surprised that he couldn't understand the man. Humans shouldn't have more than one language still in native use as far as he knew.

"Sorry" Ranma said, this time in accented English. He opened his eyes the best he could and got quite the shock with what he saw. The man he had been talking to was definitely not human. He had crests and coloring on his forehead that he had never seen before and his ears were substantially different as well. The man didn't resemble any of the oni he had seen in the spirit city. "Uh... Where am I?" He asked cautiously.

The doctor smiled when he was able to understand the words that the man had used. "Ah. You're on board the U.S.S. Enterprise, in the medical wing to be exact."

_An American ship? _Ranma looked around and finally took a look at his surroundings. A lot of advanced equipment was lying around, as well as various cages and tanks. It definitely resembled a hospital, but was a lot sleeker looking than any ship he'd ever seen or been on. The door to the facility opened up and a man in what resembled a navy jumpsuit entered. Trailing not far behind him was a slip of a woman with pointy ears. She resembled an elf. Her passive expression played at odds with the way she was observing him. Like she was just waiting for him to do something... typical?

"I see you're feeling better." The man said as he approached. "I probably don't need to tell you that you gave us quite a scare when you came here." The man stopped at the edge of the bed. "I'm Captain Jonathan Archer. This is my Science officer, T'Pol." The man, Archer, paused for a second, considering how to proceed. "If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a few questions."

"No, go ahead." Ranma said cautiously as he was finally able to sit up fully. This man was definitely an American. Not that he had too much experience with them, but the accent was unmistakeable. His relatively blunt request was also a dead give away. The man had seemed tense when he first entered the room. Ranma was sure that whatever the strange man had done to get him here had caused the captain and the crew to be on edge. It wasn't everyday you came across someone who could stop time on a whim, after all, and someone with that kind of raw ability was sure to ruffle feathers wherever he showed up.

"Well, for starters, I was wondering if you might tell us your name." Archer stated, with a soft smile. His stance relaxed some and it was obvious that he had a naive optimism to expect truthful and friendly responses. The woman's expression, however, did not change.

Well, Ranma figured, if the man wasn't going to be aggressive, neither should he. "Ranma. My name is Ranma Saotome." He was starting to feel well enough to sit up properly, so he swung his legs to the side into a more comfortable position on the bed he was placed. Feeling his back exposed he realized he was in a medical robe.

"Ranma, that's Japanese, right?" Archer asked, trying to start a small rapport with the man sitting in front of him. The man seemed to wear his emotions on his sleeve as his tone and body language exuded curiosity as he looked about sickbay.

"Yeah."

"Ranma, if you don't mind, could you tell us how you got here?" Archer asked, taking a seat next to the bed. If Ranma was as open as his body language, he might as well ask the biggest question he had right off.

"Well, that all depends, where is here?" Ranma inquired, gesturing to the room around them.

Archer looked to Phlox a little confused, before answering Ranma's question. "You're currently in the sick bay, aboard the star ship U.S.S. Enterprise."

"Star ship? As in the middle of outer space?" At the captains confused nod Ranma ran his hand over his head in disbelief. "Oh man, I really did get brought to the future."

Sharing a look with the doctor and T'Pol, Archer rubbed the back of his neck unsure of where to go next with his interview. Somehow he wasn't too surprised that time travel was involved. He'd already been harassed by the future, it was only a matter of time before someone else got involved like some sort of cosmic bad joke.

"Maybe you should just explain what you remember."

"I'm not sure how I got here. Just that someone very powerful brought me here just before a very bad thing happened." Ranma explained with his usual lack of conveyance. It wasn't like he meant to, it was just a habit of his youth.

Archer looked to Phlox again and nodded when he noticed Phlox hold up his medical scanner. "I hope you don't mind explaining just a little more than that?"

When the doctor lifted and activated the device, Ranma could feel the device looking at him, like the feeling of being watched. It was a little unnerving, but he answered the question anyway. "I was on an airplane on its was to Narita when it started to crash due to engine failure. Some strangely dressed man appeared and stopped time, told me that someone was interfering with the river of time. He said something about me being destined to die on the plane but that I'd be able to stop whatever it is that changes the flow of time."

"I find it highly unlikely, captain," the woman, T'Pol spoke up for the first time, " that he would just be pulled forward in time. For starters, the Vulcan High Command has determined that time travel itself is impossible." Before she could continue, the doctor lowered his device.

"Be that as it may, quantum dating and genetic markers don't lie." He tilted his device towards T'Pol. "I just took the time to cross reference the Starfleet database with Mr. Saotome's DNA and it appears that he is most likely a distant relative's of our own Ms. Sato. Most likely related through his mother's side of the family, if the mitochondrial DNA has anything to say about it."

T'Pol passed a brief expression of shock. "Perhaps he was abducted, kept in a state of cryogenic sleep and returned now that he has passed his usefulness." She allowed a look of superiority to settle on her features, confident that her logic had found the most likely scenario for Ranma's appearance outside of pure time travel. Archer gave her a flat look.

"Who studies a single specimen for nearly two hundred years?" Archer asked incredulously. Ranma let out a low whistle, grabbing back everyone's attention.

"Two hundred years? That's pretty impressive!" Ranma smiled brightly, throwing everyone off guard. Archer let out a long sigh while sharing a look with a surprised Vulcan. Phlox just smiled.

Archer leaned over to the small speaker that the doctor had used earlier. "Archer to ensign Sato."

"Go ahead, sir." A woman's voice came through the speaker.

"Hoshi, I need you to cross reference a plane crash in Japan from the late 1990's with the name Ranma Saotome."

"Yes sir."

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"His story checks out, sir" Ensign Hoshi Sato said plainly as she handed a data module to her captain. It came as a bit of a shock that one of the more infamous ancestors in her family tree would turn up like he had, but this wasn't the first time they had encountered time travel according to her captain. Considering that he came from such a turbulent time in Earth's history, she couldn't wait to talk to him. Especially considering that the Japanese language had evolved significantly since his time.

How exactly he got here was still up for debate, however. According to Ranma, some strange man had just appeared and pulled him forward. According to T'Pol, however, it was more likely alien intervention that helped him survive the plane crash. Held in cryogenic sleep, he'd have been able to survive the roughly 200 years with fatal injuries while whatever species that rescued him were able to modify his natural restorative abilities for when he was ready to be brought back to humans. The explanation may also help to understand the odd radiation found in hid DNA.

"Thank you, Hoshi." Archer said, absently accepting the device from his officer. He turned back to his desk, taking a pull from his coffee.

"Sir?" The Japanese girl interrupted.

Turning away from the data pad, Archer looked to his communications officer a little surprised and confused. Hoshi had always been a little more shy about making requests or interrupting others. Usually she'd hand him whatever information he had asked for and leave. It didn't annoy him by any stretch, just surprise. "Yes, Hoshi?"

"I was a little shocked when you mentioned the name. My Grandmother use to tell me stories about a person named Ranma Saotome when I was a little girl." She looked down, feeling a little silly bringing up something from here childhood like bedtime stories, smiling in embarrassment.

Smiling to reassure her, Archer new that she wanted to have his ear to ease her nerves at discovering a long lost relative. He motioned to the nearby seat. "Why don't you sit down for this" Smiling in gratitude, Hoshi took the seat. Archer urged her to continue. "Go on."

"Well, it's just that I'd always assumed they were just children stories cooked up to either make me feel more secure or to scare me into behaving. I mean, some of the things in the stories were usually outrageous or just downright impossible."

"What do you mean?" Archer asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"Most of the stories involve magic, or inhuman feats of strength. It's usual in Japanese folklore." She started. "It's just that remembering back, the ones I was told as a child about a supposed relative were always so close to modern history it was almost like you could imagine it happening today." She laughed a bit remembering some of the childish antics from the stories. "Sometimes Ranma would be a man, and sometimes a woman. In one story he even levels a mountain fighting a dragon prince."

"Sometimes a woman you say." The captain smiled in jest. "Those are some stories. It's not unusual for a family to embellish the lives of ancestors to make children feel special about their family."

Hoshi smiled and shook her head. The captain was always willing to listen to even the smallest worries of the crew. "All the same, sir, if it would be alright with you, I was wondering if I could talk to him one on one."

"Would two on one be alright?" Archer asked, leaning back into his seat. "I'm sure Phlox would be quite upset at missing some of these amazing stories while being kicked out of his sickbay. I'll be down in a little bit to check on him myself, I want to see how Trip is first."

Hoshi nodded in agreement and appreciation. "Thank you, sir."

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Ranma was in the sickbay with the doctor. He had just changed into some blue underwear and a tank top given to him by the doctor when he had expressed annoyance at being practically naked. The doctor was quite talkative, answering any question Ranma could come up with to the best of his ability. Phlox hadn't quite expected to be flooded by questions, just the opposite. But he was always willing to be patient when it came to teaching anything that he knew.

"And that is the mission of the Enterprise; to seek out new life and really explore the stars for the first time in human history." Phlox smiled. They'd gone over the recent events of the enterprise, some of the species that humans have met and why they were currently at a dead stop in space for the next few days.

"So these Xyrllians had no idea backing up exhaust would start screwing things up on a massive ship..." Ranma finished, half lidded. He had originally asked why they'd help out a random species they had not met before after that species had been messing with the ship. It wasn't that he was ungrateful for the info. He just didn't expect an hour long lecture on the recent events of human history. He'd have to remember in the future that Dr. Phlox was very long winded, even if he was extremely knowledgeable.

"Indeed. Not all ships work on the same designs, after all, now if you don't mind my asking -" Before the good doctor could inquire about anything related to Ranma (he kept getting sidetracked dispensing information) the door to the sickbay opened up revealing someone he expected to arrive sooner or later. Hoshi Sato, the descendant of the man he was talking to, hesitated slightly before entering the room.

"So, you're Ranma Saotome?" She asked, still a little unsure of how to proceed. She was a little nervous to try talking to him. If he wasn't really her somewhat legendary ancestor, then it wasn't like much would change other than there being a man of whom the crew knew nothing on board their ship. There was part of her that wanted it to be true, that a person from her family that had gone missing was actually alive and well, and that he no longer just disappeared without a trace or even a body to cremate.

"Last time I checked." Ranma said, sitting down. He had a weird feeling he couldn't place when the girl looked at him somewhat accusingly.

"I always imagined you'd be taller." Hoshi stated plainly as she leaned into one of the counters opposite Ranma.

"Excuse me?" He felt somewhat annoyed and offended at the statement. Sure, he wasn't the tallest of men, but the way she said that left him a little miffed. Most of his rivals had been taller than him, even if just slightly. He wasn't a short man, but average.

"Taller." She said again. "When my grandmother told me stories of Ranma Saotome, the man that could shake mountains and summon tornadoes, I'd always imagined him as a towering figure." She was eluding to some of the stories on purpose to see if he'd reciprocate in some way. A way to see if he really was her ancestor. Most likely he'd be able to give a more grounded version of the tales if he was.

"I don't remember shaking any mountains. That was more Ryoga's thing." He said cupping his chin and closed his eyes in concentration, missing Hoshi's eyebrows shooting up. Remembering things accurately wasn't always his strong point. "Well, I suppose there was that fight with Herb, but it wasn't like we were planning on bringing the whole thing down." After a second of silence he looked up to see her staring at him as if he were a ghost.

"You really are him." She said in disbelief. She shook her head, realizing that he didn't counter her claims like she had expected. "Wait, you actually brought down a mountain?" Ryoga was one of his rivals from the stories, and if they were to be believed, he still lived, as an old hermit that no one could hope to find on purpose.

"Well, yeah." Ranma said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "It was in the news." Then he remembered, he didn't have a single clue of who this girl or her grandmother was, or even why she would know of any of his adventures. The only people who knew these answers were either long dead or really really old by now. "Who are you?"

"I'm Hoshi Sato. I'm a descendant from your mother's side of the family." She said, taking a seat for the first time. She knew that she'd be here for a while now that she knew that he was indeed THE Ranma from her childhood stories.

"The captain and doctor mentioned you when we first talked." Ranma noted. Now he kind of understood the feeling he felt, it was the same feeling he had when he'd met his mother for the vary first time. Family. She had some of the same features that his girl side shared with his mother now that he thought about it. "So, what can I do for you?"

"Talk, I guess." She shrugged her shoulders. "Answer some questions, maybe ask some of your own." Today was probably going to be quite trying for him as he started to come to grips with what suddenly appearing two hundred years after his time. "You're from so long ago, before even the Eugenics War or World War Three. I have so many questions, and I'm sure you do, too."

"Well, I guess that can't hurt." If she really was all the family he had at the moment he'd better get to know her. Exchanging questions would be an easy way to get to know her. "What would you like to know?"

"They say you were the best." She stated more than asked, but he knew that she wanted to know about the school of indiscriminate grappling. "That you could master any style in a matter of weeks. That your school of martial arts was undefeated, but it was lost to time with you." She recounted what the stories said about his fighting prowess.

He rubbed the back of his neck at the reverence that she used, trying not to let his ego get the better of him. "Well, I can't say undefeated, but the Saotome School came pretty close. Why do you ask?"

"More of a curiosity, really." She was glad that he was not as arrogant as the stories made him seem, but one question wouldn't really prove that. "When I was learning Aikido, I was pretty small compared to my classmates. I'd always wished that I knew your school when I was pushed around. That I'd be able to beat them up whenever they teased me for being so small." She smiled thinking back to her childhood. "Of course, it didn't matter in the end. Most of us got our black belts."

"A black belt in Aikido? Not bad for an egghead." He said naively, giving her a thumbs up.

"What do you mean, 'for an egghead egghead?'" She asked, her annoyance quite clear in her voice.

Holding up his hands in a show of peace and or defense, he wasn't quite sure which, he tried to placate her. "Sorry, force of habit. I was trying to compliment you. Most people smarter than me usually don't practice any martial arts." She relaxed her features a little and leaned back in her seat, arms crossed in lingering emotion. "Yeah, I am pretty tough. I wouldn't say undefeated, there were a few times where I had to make a break for it. I always won when it counted, though. No one continued the school after me?"

"I don't know, but I don't think so. No one can find the supposed founder of your style, so we'd always just thought of it as folklore, really."

"So he finally kicked it, eh? Happossai always was a tough little geezer, but I guess no one can beat time. He gave it his best, though." Ranma mussed, rubbing his chin in thought.

"How so?" It wouldn't the first time in human history that someone tried for immortality, but anything she could learn from one of her ancestors was almost like giving her a new language to learn.

"Eh, he found a magical formula that needed the tears of something both male and female to keep him alive. I guess without me around finding those must have been kind of hard. Maybe the Musk knows where he is." He noticed her look of total disbelief at his statement. "What?"

Not refuting that he had monstrous strength was one thing, but bringing up magic so casually, especially as someone from a post industrial era, was starting to get on her nerves. Sure there were plenty of things in the galaxy that couldn't be readily explained, but everything always had a scientific explanation behind it. "You actually expect me to believe in magic or that you're both male and female?"

"It's a curse, and doesn't everybody?" Ranma gave a shrug. Hoshi was starting to see why he always angered people in the stories. He expected everyone to react to and just accept everything exactly like himself. He was not diplomatic in anyway.

"No, no one believes in magic, and what do you mean curse?"

Waiving off her frustration as another one of those girl things he never quite figured out he to deflect the issue. "Just something I picked up in China, no big deal, really."

The doctor chose that moment to speak up before too much information was exchanged, he already had a lot of questions, but he wasn't going to let this one escape him. "Does this have anything to do with your Y chromosome?"

"Huh?" Clearly not having quite understood what the doctor had said, all Ranma could muster was a blank look of confusion.

Seeing his look, Phlox continued to explain what he meant. "Your Y chromosome exudes an odd radiation unlike anything I've ever encountered. When you mentioned being both male and female I just assumed it might have something to do with the energy my scanners were picking up from your gender defining chromosome." He pulled up the scan he took when Ranma had first appeared. Ranma let a small whistle. "This was one of the things I meant to ask you about."

"Would you look at that, it can show up as actual physical proof." He turned back to Hoshi and jerked his thumb towards the screen. "That is proof that magic exists, as well as the fact that I usually don't get along with it all that well."

"What is it?"

"It's the curse that I picked up in China during my teen years, I think." He looked at both Hoshi and Phlox seriously before continuing. "Can I count on the whole confidentiality thing or does that not count on Denobula?"

Phlox gave a reassuring smile. "Rest assured, your secret is safe with me."

"I guess you're fine, too, basically being family and all. I mean, it's not that big of a deal, I just don't like it to play an active role in my life if I can help it." He turned back to the doctor. "Okay, doc. Yes, it has everything to do with the... Chromosome?" Phlox nodded encouragingly at the use of the correct word. "And why I am both male and female. I'm a guy, though, I can assure you." He said the last part with conviction. "I sometimes turn into a girl, okay?" he looked away in slight embarrassment. Even more than a decade on and it was still a sore spot with him. There were certain things that he had to take into account that men should never have to think about. He'd also been trying to keep it more under wraps as well, not wanting to become a science experiment and all.

"How is that even possible?" Hoshi put her hands to her hips.

Sure, it wasn't like you come across someone that turns into the opposite gender everyday, but as his great, whatever number, niece you think she'd give him the benefit of the doubt. "Look, I don't know. All I know is that cold water turns me into a girl, okay?"

He watched the doctor reach to the counter and grab a small mug that he would sip from occasionally. With a nonchalant grunt, smile and hum, Phlox tossed the contents in his direction. The change was near instant, and his brain naturally compensating for the perspective and weight shift as it always had done. With raised eyebrows and not a word, Phlox picked up his scanner. Hoshi, on the other hand, performed a more familiar gesture at having her world view dismantled. Her hand shot out as her mouth tried to catch flies and grabbed a handful of cloth covered flesh.

Everyone's attention was pulled away quickly by the sound of the sickbay doors opening. The captain started to enter, his attention focused on a data pad in his hand. "Sounds like Trip is back to his old self, doctor. Well, if T'Pol's annoyance is any indicator. How's our-" His question died on his lips as he look up for the first time and took in the scene before him. The doctor using his scanner wasn't that unusual, but Hoshi fondling a girl that could pass for her redheaded sister was. The hair style is what helped his brain make the connection to what Hoshi had alluded to before she had come down to medical. "Sometimes a woman... Some story..." was the most he could muster.

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Ranma sat in the room that the captain had provided for him. He was provided some clothes that matched his old style pretty closely thanks to being a civilian rather than a crew member. He'd been able to go through some old documentation from the ships computer to find something that he would like to be made. His temporary quarters were placed on the same hallway that Hoshi's were, which was probably done for his sake as far as he could tell. It would be nice to be near family, though.

Thankfully his curse was written off as some sort of retro virus that he may have picked up. The doctor was continuing his studies into what exactly it could have been. But Ranma new that it would take a while for such scientifically minded people to just accept that it was magic. Hoshi was convinced now more than ever that he was indeed the real Ranma Saotome.

Now that he had time to himself, he started to think about why he was brought here. Whoever that man in red robes was, he was convinced that something big was going to happen and that Ranma needed to stop it. He was brought specifically to this ship for a reason, and he new that he'd have to find a way to convince the captain to let his stay aboard the vessel. He could think of a few things that might help, but he was exhausted from all of the happenings that day. He'd talk to Hoshi and the captain tomorrow, he had a couple of days after all. It wasn't like they were in a big hurry with one of their crewmen on a different ship. Sleep came pretty quickly, all things considered.

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And there you have it, the first real chapter to TSCR (I know it says chapter two). Let me know what you think. I know some of you may be banging your heads against the wall wondering why I'm not working on CC, but rest assure that I have not abandoned it. If you think the story is worth a follow, don't hesitate to leave a small review saying what you liked about it :)! Or if something rubs you the wrong way, let me know. Tuatara had no qualms about laying into me, or at least trying. Until next time.


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